


(Not) you

by Anonymous



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dimension Travel, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-03 16:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15822651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: You were stuck in a familiar yet unfamiliar place. And when you escaped, all you got was a mysterious man who showed "you" going through things you never remembered happening that way.





	(Not) you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Exile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/gifts).



Have you ever thought about a world where everything is exactly the same… except you don't exist?

Or rather, “you” exist, but it's not _you_.

* * *

You remembered slipping down from the bridge, wondering if you’d be falling forever. But then your body hit the ground, and it hurt all over - but only for a moment before everything went dark.

* * *

When you opened your eyes, you were in Hotland.

Except it wasn’t really Hotland, at least not as you knew it. To begin with, the Hotland you knew was far, well, hotter, with more lava going around and everything glowing redder. And also more crowded, royal guards and vendors and everyone else bustling around. But here, walking in every direction you can, you could only see three uncanny figures, all black and white and grey. You tried asking them about what this place was, who they were, where everyone else were. Yet all they’d talk about was the “previous Royal Scientist” who you vaguely remember hearing about from your parents. You tried asking them to tell you more about him (you weren’t actually that curious, but if that was the only topic they’d talk about, might as well ask them to explain more), but they only repeated the same screeds about his brilliance and his disappearance, and you were too creeped out to stay and talk longer with any one of them.

It was then that you looked down at yourself - and nearly screamed. Your whole body was as colourless as the rest of them, the stripes of your shirt had morphed into misshapen checkers, and when you fell on your back and hit your head on the ground, you couldn't feel your spines, but rather something softer and fabric-like. You yanked yourself up and ran towards whichever direction you could, trying to find a way out, trying to find someone else you could talk to and ask about what was going on - what was this place? How did you get here? What happened to you?

But you could find no one to answer your questions, and you continued to run aimlessly.

* * *

You weren’t even paying attention to where you were going - you might even have had your eyes closed most of the time - and suddenly found yourself in a dark area. Looking back, you could no longer see Hotland (or “Hotland” - you still weren’t sure what that place actually was), only endless darkness. You were on a wooden plank walkway, and everything was dark and eerily silent. No one answered your calls asking if anyone were there, and no matter how far you went, you could see nothing but ever-expansive darkness.

Until you saw _him_. Him, with the distorted skeletal face.

If you were still in the world you previously knew, you might have just ran away in fear, but desperate for anyone else to talk to, you approached him and started firing off questions at him, asking who he was and if he knew where you both were. But alas, you understood nothing of what he was trying to say with his hands. Still, having someone in the middle of this endless darkness was better than being alone, and you'd rather not take your chances by trying to venture out and finding someone else all on your own.

You figured that even if you didn’t understand him, he might just understand you. So you told him the story of what happened just as you fell, the place you found yourself in afterwards and how your appearance had changed, the strange figures you met and what they talked about - and at this, you noticed that the topic had alerted the man. He started alternatively waving his hand in front of you and then pointing a finger at himself, and then you connected the dots.

“Are you the former Royal Scientist?”

The man nodded, and immediately all the questions poured out of your mouth - what did he know about this place? How did he end up here? What about those figures who talked about him - did he know them, and how did they also end up here? Was that place ‘Hotland’? How did you manage to get here from that place?

You paused when the man put his hands in front of him, gesturing pushing movements at you. After you apologised and took a step back, the man pulled his hands close in front of him again, as if getting ready to speak with his hands again, but then dropped his hands besides his body instead. And you started feeling silly yourself for asking all those questions - how were you planning to understand his answers, anyway? But then the man tapped your back and made a beckoning gesture, as if asking you to follow him. Was he about to show you something that may answer some of your questions? You two walked for a short distance, stopping near the end of one branch of the walkway. The man waved his hand in the air, and -

You gasped.

Appearing from the darkness was a display, not unlike a screen but wholly bordered by the darkness around it, and in it was you. Or someone that looked like exactly like you did, except you didn't remember things happening quite this way: in this display, the other kid you had been walking with pulled you up before you could fall. The man waved his hand again, and another display materialised out of the darkness – and in this one, Undyne was the one to save you. With each wave of his hand, more and more displays appeared, each one showing “you” doing things you never remembered doing.

You tried asking the man about what it all meant, but predictably, he answered in those hand signs you still didn't understand. So you asked something easier to answer:

“Can I go back to that world from before?”

The answer came as a shake of the head. On some level, you expected that to be the answer, but it still hurt to have it confirmed. As you hung your head down, however, the man tapped again at your back. You looked up at him and his other hand was pointing forwards, towards the direction of more pitch-black darkness.

Was he asking you to come with him somewhere? You had no idea what lies in the darkness, and you still didn't know much about this man. But you somehow didn't mind his presence – especially when the alternative was being alone in this light-devoid world.

You nodded and stepped forward along him, walking towards wherever this endless walkway would take you.


End file.
